In my last blog, I touched upon the last eight to nine months, the projects which have taken fruition, the ideas which have taken shape while doing the NHS England role, and it's been fun, really good fun, while being an amazing experience to chalk up. But a query has been made from a few quarters via emails etc, "what about any obstacles?"

And it brings to the fore the question, 'how open can one be while doing the role that I do?'

Well… if leadership is about openness and honesty, it's worth a try, bearing also in mind sensitivities and the bigger picture too.

What's the point in saying some facts which may be a bit too close for comfort? You end up losing the job and the opportunity to benefit many others.

Applications are being sought for a prestigious position on the examining board responsible for new diabetes consultants.

The Federation of Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom has a new vacancy for an endocrinology and diabetes specialty certificate examination (SCE) examining board member. The deadline for applications is Monday, March 13. To read more, click here.

The translation of a tool to help people find out their risk of developing type 2 diabetes has been described by a leading diabetes professor as a “breakthrough”.

The Leicester Risk Score enables people to find out their risk of developing the condition and is recommended by health watchdog NICE, used by Diabetes UK and has attracted more than 1.1 million online users.

A pioneering research centre aimed at finding new treatments for type 2 diabetes will be built as part of a £115m collaboration between Novo Nordisk and a leading university.

Novo Nordisk has announced the partnership with the University of Oxford, which will allow scientists from both organisations to work together to come up with new ways of treating the condition. To read more, click here.

Care of people with diabetes varies dramatically across England and Wales but there have been improvements nationally in all three key treatment targets, the latest National Diabetes Audit results have revealed.

The National Diabetes Audit 2015-16 found that the percentage of people with type 1 diabetes achieving NICE-recommended treatment targets for glucose control, blood pressure and cholesterol varied from 11 per cent in some Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) to 34 per cent in others. To read more, click here.

A study looking at transitional diabetes care from paediatric to adult has shown glycaemic control improves significantly once the transfer is complete.

However, the research which looked at 126 young people also showed the mean HbA1c levels still remained high. The participants of the cohort study were aged between 14 and 22 and they were measured from two years before and two years after moving into adult diabetes care. To read more, click here.

A new type of glucose monitoring system which eliminates the “pain and burden” of routine finger pricks has been deemed safe for children with type 1 diabetes to use, according to research.

Abbott’s Freestyle Libre flash glucose was put to the test by a team at Oxford Children’s Hospital, who wanted to find out the “accuracy, safety and acceptability” of the device among young people. To read more, click here.

After a good few months of being single last year I decided to throw myself back into the dating game, but this time I seemed to be very aware of the fact that I have a long-term health condition and that I would be letting someone else in on that. To read more, click here.

Coming soon to DT...

To help share all the excellent, pioneering and innovative work being carried out by diabetes teams across the country, we are launching our new Innovation Hub.